Witkoff and Kushner to meet Putin in Moscow

2/12/2025 14:34

U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday for talks on a possible way to end the deadliest European conflict since World War Two.



Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war in Ukraine, which his administration casts as a "bloodbath" and "a proxy war", but his efforts so far, including a summit with Putin in Alaska in August, have not yet brought peace.



A leaked set of 28 U.S. draft peace proposals emerged last week, spooking Ukrainian and European officials who felt it bowed to Moscow's key demands on NATO, Moscow's control of a fifth of Ukraine and restrictions on Ukraine's army. European powers then gave their counter-proposal for peace and at talks in Geneva, the U.S. and Ukraine said they had created an "updated and refined peace framework" to end the war.



Putin has said the discussions so far are not about a draft agreement but about a set of proposals that he said last week "could be the basis for future agreements".



Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Witkoff's meeting with Putin would be in the second half of Tuesday.